History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne Volume II Part 50

673 A little book has been written on these legends by M. Charles de Bussy, called _Les Courtisanes saintes_. There is said to be some doubt about St. Afra, for, while her acts represent her as a reformed courtesan, St. Fortunatus, in two lines he has devoted to her, calls her a virgin. (Ozanam, _etudes german._ tome ii. p. 8.)

674 See the _Vit. Sancti Joannis Eleemosynarii_ (Rosweyde).

675 Tillemont, tome x. pp. 61-62. There is also a very picturesque legend of the manner in which St. Paphnutius converted the courtesan Thais.

676 See especially, Tertullian, _Ad Uxorem_. It was beautifully said, at a later period, that woman was not taken from the head of man, for she was not intended to be his ruler, nor from his feet, for she was not intended to be his slave, but from his side, for she was to be his companion and his comfort. (Peter Lombard, _Senten._ lib. ii.

dis. 18.)

677 The reader may find many pa.s.sages on this subject in Barbeyrac, _Morale des Peres_, ii. -- 7; iii. -- 8; iv. -- 31-35; vi. -- 31; xiii.

-- 2-8.

678 "It is remarkable how rarely, if ever (I cannot call to mind an instance), in the discussions of the comparative merits of marriage and celibacy, the social advantages appear to have occurred to the mind.... It is always argued with relation to the interests and the perfection of the individual soul; and, even with regard to that, the writers seem almost unconscious of the softening and humanising effect of the natural affections, the beauty of parental tenderness and filial love."-Milman's _Hist. of Christianity_, vol. iii. p.

196.

679 "Tempus breve est, et jam securis ad radices arborum posita est, quae silvam legis et nuptiarum evangelica cast.i.tate succidat."-_Ep._ cxxiii.

680 "Laudo nuptias, laudo conjugium, sed quia mihi virgines generant."-_Ep._ xxii.

681 See Ceillier, _Auteurs eccles._ xiii. p. 147.

682 Socrates, iv. 23.

683 Palladius, _Hist. Laus._ cxix.

_ 684 Vit. S. Abr._ (Rosweyde), cap. i.

685 I do not know when this legend first appeared. M. Littre mentions having found it in a French MS. of the eleventh century (Littre, _Les Barbares_, pp. 123-124); and it also forms the subject of a very curious fresco, I imagine of a somewhat earlier date, which was discovered, within the last few years, in the subterranean church of St. Clement at Rome. An account of it is given by Father Mullooly, in his interesting little book about that Church.

_ 686 De Virgin._ cap. iii.

687 Greg. Tur. i. 42.

688 The regulations on this point are given at length in Bingham.

689 Muratori, _Antich. Ital._ diss. xx.

690 St. Greg. _Dial._ i. 10.

691 Delepierre, _L'Enfer decrit par ceux qui l'ont vu_, pp. 44-56.

692 Val. Max. ii. 1. -- 3.

693 "Ille meos, primus qui me sibi junxit, amores Abstulit; ille habeat sec.u.m, servetque sepulchro."

_aen._ iv. 28.

694 E.g., the wives of Lucan, Drusus, and Pompey.

695 Tacit. _German._ xix.

696 Friedlander, tome i. p. 411.

697 Hieron. _Ep._ liv.

698 "Uxorem vivam amare voluptas; Defunctam religio."

Statius. _Sylv._ v. in promio.

699 By one of the laws of Charondas it was ordained that those who cared so little for the happiness of their children as to place a stepmother over them, should be excluded from the councils of the State. (Diod. Sic. xii. 12.)

700 Tertullian expounded the Montanist view in his treatise, _De Monogamia_.

701 A full collection of the statements of the Fathers on this subject is given by Perrone, _De Matrimonio_, lib. iii. Sect. I.; and by Natalis Alexander, _Hist. Eccles._ Saec. II. dissert. 18.

702 Thus, to give but a single instance, St. Jerome, who was one of their strongest opponents, says: "Quid igitur? d.a.m.namus secunda matrimonia? Minime, sed prima laudamus. Abjicimus de ecclesia digamos? absit; sed monogamos ad continentiam provocamus. In arca Noe non solum munda sed et immunda fuerunt animalia."-_Ep._ cxxiii.

_ 703 In Legat._

_ 704 Strom._ lib. iii.

_ 705 Contra Jovin._ i.

706 Ibid. See, too, _Ep._ cxxiii.

707 Hom. xvii. in Luc.

_ 708 Orat._ x.x.xi.

709 Perrone, _De Matr._ iii. -- 1, art. 1; Natalis Alexander, _Hist.

Eccles._ II. dissert. 18. The penances are said not to imply that the second marriage was a sin, but that the moral condition that made it necessary was a bad one.

710 See Stephen's _Hist. of English Criminal Law_, i. p. 461.

711 Conc. Illib. can. x.x.xviii. Bingham thinks the feeling of the Council to have been, that if baptism was not administered by a priest, it should at all events be administered by one who might have been a priest.

712 Perrone, _De Matrimonio_, tome iii. p. 102.

713 This subject has recently been treated with very great learning and with admirable impartiality by an American author, Mr. Henry C. Lea, in his _History of Sacerdotal Celibacy_ (Philadelphia, 1867), which is certainly one of the most valuable works that America has produced. Since the great history of Dean Milman, I know no work in English which has thrown more light on the moral condition of the middle ages, and none which is more fitted to dispel the gross illusions concerning that period which High Church writers, and writers of the positive school, have conspired to sustain.

714 See Lea, p. 36. The command of St. Paul, that a bishop or deacon should be the husband of _one_ wife (1 Tim. iii. 2-12) was believed by all ancient and by many modern commentators to be prohibitory of second marriages; and this view is somewhat confirmed by the widows who were to be honoured and supported by the Church, being only those who had been but once married (1 Tim. v. 9). See Pressense, _Hist. des trois premiers Siecles_ (1re serie), tome ii. p. 233.

Among the Jews it was ordained that the high priest should not marry a widow. (Levit. xxi. 13-14.)

715 Socrates, _H. E._ i. 11. The Council of Illiberis (can. x.x.xiii.) had ordained this, but both the precepts and the practice of divines varied greatly. A brilliant summary of the chief facts is given in Milman's _History of Early Christianity_, vol. iii. pp. 277-282.

716 See, on the state of things in the tenth and eleventh centuries, Lea, pp. 162-192.

717 Ratherius, quoted by Lea, p. 151.